Courtesy Photo | Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, a native of Hattiesburg, Miss., who serves as the...... read more read more
Spc. Aaron Rosencrans
Multi-National Division - Baghdad
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, a native of Hattiesburg, Miss., who serves as the commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division and Multi-National Division – Baghdad, and Gen. Abboud Qanbar, commanding general, Fard al-Qanoon (Baghdad), declared they have no plans to move further into the Sadr City district of Baghdad during a press conference with western Iraqi media representatives at the Media Center located on Forward Operating Base Prosperity April 24.
The leaders discussed recent events in Sadr City and the future plans for the northeastern district of Baghdad.
"We went into south Sadr City to protect against the rocket threat," said Hammond. "Since late March, these criminals have increased their attacks against the government of Iraq, against the innocent civilians, the security forces and U.S. Soldiers. To do that, they've used rockets, they've used mortars, small-arms fire and IEDs."
Abboud pointed out the armed groups, who are operating outside the law, are the ones who instigated the attacks against the security forces and citizens, and they started by firing hundreds of rockets and mortars in the direction of safe neighborhoods in Baghdad.
Hammond said those criminals needed to be dealt with, so he ordered U.S. forces to conduct precision strikes to prevent unnecessary damage or loss of life to innocent civilians.
Hammond also decided to block the criminals' ability to launch rocket attacks on the International Zone by pushing into Sadr City and having the Iraqi security forces control the southern portion of the district to prevent further attacks on the diplomatic and governmental zone in the heart of Baghdad.
"We determined, based on our analysis, we found right about what we're calling Phase Line Gold, or our most northern reach of Sadr City, is the point at which the rockets exceeded their range to strike the International Zone."
Phase Line Gold runs along Route Gold in Sadr city, which represents roughly one-third of the northeastern district of Baghdad.
After achieving security to the line Hammond described, he said there are no future plans of pushing deeper into Sadr City, but he and Abboud decided to create a safe neighborhood in the now secure southern region of Sadr City.
"Being where we're at now, we have no plans of going further," Hammond said. "We made the decision to create a safe neighborhood to protect the people from the resurgence of such an attack and also to create better living conditions for the people living there."
Part of the initiative to create safe living conditions for residents of the southern portion of Sadr City, MND-B Soldiers and the ISF have been building walls to protect the citizens in the newly secured area of Baghdad.
"This (Iraqi) government-led and government-endorsed program, the safe neighborhood program, has proven very effective across Baghdad in restoring security to threatened communities," said Hammond. "These barriers help the ISF deny movement of illegal materials, such as rockets and mortars, to keep them out from intimidating and harming the people."
Abboud added the walls are meant to protect the residents of not only that southern part of Sadr City, but the innocent civilians who live around the International Zone of Baghdad.
He also said the walls are not intended to be permanent fixtures in Baghdad and will be taken down once a stable environment has been created in the city.
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.29.2008 12:21 |
| Story ID: | 18890 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 36 |
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